Day 21: Wear your postal pride?

Yesterday, the US Postal Service announced a new initiative aimed at bringing in more revenue to offset the major financial woes we’ve been hearing about recently. They’ve teamed up with an apparel company to create a new line of all-weather clothing that features wearable electronics. The press release is somewhat vague, but the line’s nomenclature — Rain Heat & Snow — points to something akin to thermal underwear but with more appeal. One hopes.

Branding is a time-honored way to generate cash, so this move shouldn’t be a big surprise. What remains to be seen is if people will want to wear clothing with the Postal Service logo on it. Perhaps it will depend on the size of the logo?

This announcement may make cynics scoff and is likely to be played for laughs, but I suspect it will go over better than the end of Saturday delivery. Weather you don sweat-wicking shirts or an armband that transmits miles walked to a smartphone or pants that get warmer as the temperature drops that also happen to say USPS on the side is your personal choice. No mail on Saturday affects everyone.

What else do you think the Postal Service will do to make money and solve the budget crisis?

If there was a way for USPS to get in on Internet action, such as offering web hosting, cloud storage, or even broadband service in select areas (maybe in rural areas that have limited options for Internet providers), that would be an ideal way for them to make money. Sounds ironic, I know, but they are in the business of getting messages from point A to point B, so why not expand that to include more modern methods?